Fending off a jutia

A Cuban jutia looking for a free meal. Photos by Nick Fletcher.

Yesterday afternoon as Keko was polling our skiff through some mangroves he spotted a jutia sitting on a branch a few feet above the water watching us. A jutia is a fairly large rodent that is a hell of a lot cuter than a rat. They used to exist all over Cuba but then people who weren’t getting enough protein in their diet started catching them and cooking them in pots with wilds nuts and honey. You have to cook a jutia for a day or so to make it edible and there’s not a lot of meat on it when you’re done, but I guess if you’re hungry enough, you’ll do it.

Anyway, Keko pointed out the jutia and I asked him to pole closer to the mangrove so I could get a good photo of it. He poled right up to the little guy who was only a few feet from us, staring intently at us at eye level. That’s when the bugger made a leap for the boat and landed against Keko’s leg. Which, shall we say, did not exactly thrill Keko. I’ve never heard a Cuban fishing guide scream like a little girl until that jutia brushed up against Keko’s leg.

Keko used the end of his long fiberglass pole to swat at the jutia, knocking it into the water. The jutia began dogpaddling away from the skiff. But although he seemed to be a pretty efficient swimmer, he wasn’t moving very quickly and Keko jabbed at him a couple of times, pushing him farther away from the boat. Every time he’d connect, the jutia would squeak and bark in displeasure. I was starting to feel sort of sorry for it, though I was glad that Keko had knocked it out of the boat.

After awhile, the jutia made it to another mangrove and climbed up on to a limb. He stood there staring at us. As if to say, Mess with me again and I’ll bite your nose off. We moved on.

Later in the day we stopped at a little island where the guides sometimes bring fishermen for lunch. Keko said the animals on the island—mostly iguanas and jutias—would come around when they saw people, hoping to get some scraps from the leftover sandwiches and apples and such. Sure enough, it wasn’t two minutes after we pulled the boat on to the sandy beach that first an iguana and then a jutia came right up to us, looking for a handout. Nick, our wild animal nut, got the jutia to stand on his leg staring right into the camera while he dangled a crust of bread a foot above the ground. He snapped a couple of pics, the jutia grabbed the crust, and sat there cautiously looking at us out of the corner of his eye while nibbling on his free meal. Then the iguanas started to show up. And another jutia. And then some large birds landed nearby and a big crab waddled up. At this point I was kind of getting the creeps. Like all the wild animals on the island were going to come over looking for a handout and when we ran out of food, there’d be a riot. We’d have to fight off the iguanas and jutias and god knows what else. I think Keko was having the same thought because he broke off a handful of bread crusts and tossed them down the beach. As the animals went scampering after the food, he said, “Come on! Hurry! Let’s go now!”

We ran down the beach to the skiff, got in and shoved off. The iguanas and jutias glared at us. We glared back.